I ran this race to have fun and to try for living in the moment. I tried to avoid getting caught up in worrying about what my finishing time would be. This was quite liberating, and I should do this more often! Sure; I did wear a sub-3 hour pacing band to give me splits to shoot for, but the goal was VERY loose. My marathon training has been very unsubstantial, and I knew this. I ran the Wasatch 100 last month, and therefore my focus on recovering from that event and transitioning back to road running was a mental shift. Hitting the trails and pounding the pavement are two entirely different animals for sure!
I headed out from the start feeling relaxed and worked on finding a comfortable stride. I struck up a conversation with Bill Hiatt who was shooting for a 3:05 finish. I’ve become acquainted and run with him over the last few years in other marathons as he usually runs a comparable pace to mine. He said he wanted to hang with me and we’d see how things would play out. That only lasted until Veyo at mile 7 when nature came calling to me, and he forged ahead. Oh well. This is an individual sport anyways, isn’t it? He went on to finish in 3:04:56, so he certainly met his goal with the blink of an eye to spare!
I continued to feel decent and hit my splits through mile 22. I can’t say I “hit the wall,” but I definitely felt my legs tightening up and therefore my pace began to taper off. I enjoyed the cheers and support of spectators upon crossing Snow Canyon Parkway around mile 23. Many times at that point in a race I have a tunnel vision of sorts and kind of take the people for granted. It was uplifting to look around and see the excitement conveyed to the runners at the tail end of their journey.
After hitting the finish line and taking a little time to shake out the lactic acid in my legs, I headed to the sidelines with my wife and her cousin. We watched other runners finish for about the next hour and a half. It was a neat experience as a spectator, which isn’t something I do very often. I usually just feel the need to take a shower and a good nap!
The feeling of running just for the sake of running made for an all around enjoyable experience. I’m too often caught up in playing out how the race should go for me and then being critical of where I placed and the time on the clock at the finish line. This is not to say that I don’t have goals for the future, however. It was a moment to reap the reward of viewing the scenery on my own two legs with thousands of other passionate runners. | 